The Ring Two (unrated edition)

(2005)

"Fear comes full circle."

New rentals! We are prone to avoiding the theater and waiting to rent, and I grabbed this sequel, newly avaialable to rent, thinking "Oh, this will be good!"

Well, I'll make this brief and to the point. First off, in order to even begin to understand "The Ring Two", you need to have first seen the original. Which I did, and I thought the original one was scary as hell, and a very good film. But just because you saw the first one that doesn't mean you need to waste your time seeing this boring, un-scary sequel, which suffers most from poor direction and editing.

The plot: Naomi Watts reprises her role from "The Ring", determined to make a new life with her son, but the evil Samara returns. SURPRISE!

I don't know what "chilling new scenes" (as it says on the DVD box) this unrated version contains, but if the unrated version is supposed to be scarier than the rated one, that makes it even worse. This film is just not scary. In fact, my husband and I found ourselves laughing at many of the supposedly-scary scenes.

For instance: in the first film the director wasn't trying to scare the audience with computer-animated deer. And the only thing less scary than deer are computer-animated deer. That whole scene seemed to be just a lame imitation of the final scene from the Hitchcock classic "The Birds". We were laughing the entire time.

And how did Naomi Watts' character keep her (creepy-looking) little boy clean, if he's so damn phobic of tubs, showers, toilets and even faucets? Damn, kid, take a bath and wash your stanky little self! Oh no! Scared of the bath tub too? Well, Mom will just leave you alone in the tub, you'll be fine. What could happen?

This slow, predictable, boring, barely-a-horror-movie movie is long on closeups of Watts' face, and short on scary Samara.

See the original, but skip this one.

Gia (unrated edition)

(1998)

"Everyone Saw The Beauty, No One Saw The Pain."

"Gia" is based on the real life story of late 1970's supermodel Gia Marie Carangi; starting with her life as a young girl, we see her watch tearfully as her mother (Mercedes Ruehl) leaves her father and her, for another man. We next see her as a spike-haired, pink-haired punk of 18, working in her father's diner, who becomes a model after an impromptu photo shoot one evening. As her fame rises, she falls under the influence of heroin, and dies from AIDS in 1986, aged 26. Gia Carangi was one of the first women in America whose death was attributed to AIDS. Taken from interviews with people who knew her, and her own journals, "Gia" is a film that catapulted Angelina Jolie, in the lead role, into stardom, and for which she earned the Golden Globe Award, and also helped bring to attention the growing epidemic of women with AIDS.

Gia Carangi could possibly be described as the brunette Marilyn Monroe of the modeling world; another woman famous for her beauty, whose emotional vulnerabilities ultimately led to her death. Angelina Jolie is electrifying and completely believable, possibly drawing from her own modeling past, and empathy for the woman she portrays. She almost eerily seems to embody the tragic supermodel - I remember very well the model Gia from her heyday, her ads, her covers, and I had wondered what happened to her - until I saw this film. Her celebrity is illustrated by the fact that supermodel Cindy Crawford, who resembles Gia Carangi, was often referred to as "The Next Gia", and "Baby Gia", when she first started modeling.

This unrated version (I have both) has 5 minutes more footage in it than the rated. I haven't watched my other version in awhile, but there seem to be more drug/needle scenes in this one, and possibly a little more nudity.

Gia starts off as a very sexy film, making Gia's sexuality evident in the earliest scenes - at her first, informal modeling shoot, she shows her preference for women, and later on when asked if she's ever had sex with a man, replies "Yeah, once. I could have done that with a German Shepherd". But the film soon must delve into Gia's downward spiral into drugs and depression, after the death of Wilhelmina Cooper, her first modeling agent and a close friend/mother figure. As Gia says, "People keep going away from me. It hurts."

The film is a study in greys, punctuated with flashes of bright colors, such as red. A mournful Jazz soundtrack for the titles and parts of the film, and classic rock and roll songs of the time contribute greatly to the atmosphere.

With a strong supporting cast, including Mercedes Reuhl as her mother, Elizabeth Mitchell as her lover, Eric Michael Cole as her friend T.J, and Faye Dunaway as Wilhelmina Cooper, HBO Pictures brought to TV one of the best of the made-for-TV film genre.

Profit - (TV series, complete DVD set)

(1996)

"Profit - A Name You Can't Trust."

I don't usually review TV shows but I had to make an exception for "Profit".

Recently released for the first time ever, and on DVD, this deliciously evil short-lived series from 1996 was far ahead of its time. Today, in the era of HBO and shows such as "The Sopranos", the then-outrageous TV show "Profit" would fit right in. Lasting a mere season because of the uproar over its subject matter and its in-your-face handling of same (for example, the relationship between Jim Profit and his drug-addled trashy stepmother, wonderfully portrayed by Lisa Blount, sent conservatives into a tailspin), when I first saw the show I was immediately hooked, and was floored when it was cancelled.

My husband had heard me lament the demise of the show (he had never seen it). When he saw in a magazine that it was going to be released, and on DVD - the pilot, the 3 episodes that were aired in the USA, plus the 4 episodes I never got to see, that were released in France - he said "Isn't that the show you're always talking about that was cancelled that you loved so much?" - I looked at the article and literally made a beeline to my computer, credit card in hand. The DVD set includes some great interviews with the different people involved in the creation of the show.

As soon as it arrived, my husband started watching it with me and was even more hooked than I had been, especially at the pilot's amazing ending (I won't spoil it). After the pilot he said "That just makes me want to watch more!" It was everything I remembered: handsome, suave, charismatic, and completely evil Jim Profit (wonderfully portrayed by Adrian Pasdar), a warped product of insane parents and a horrible upbringing (his father made him live and sleep in a carboard box with a hole cut out so that he could just see a TV screen) uses any means in his power to get ahead in his quest to attain ownership of Gracen & Gracen, a powerful corporation. To say much more than this would spoil the story.

Watching the entire series, my husband and I treated it like a miniseries...and as we neared the last episode, I found myself saying, "Soon, there will be no more Profit! We're almost through it all!" I found myself suggesting after it was all over, that they bring the series back...hey, what's Adrian Pasdar doing these days?

Maybe HBO could pick it up, get at least some of the original cast back to participate - they'd have to have Pasdar - and do a "9 years later" and start the ball rolling again with a "9 years later" episode. What's the rest of the original cast up to these days (including Lisa Zane, actor Billy Zane's sister, as Joanne Meltzer, Jim Profit's arch-nemesis)? HBO should get some smarts and grab it up and run with it! FOX was smart enough to snatch it up back then; today it'd be perfect for cable TV.

"Profit" only suffered from its timing, as that there were no cable networks back then such as HBO, and apparently it was just too much for most of mainstream America. Brilliantly written and cast, one of the best TV shows I have ever seen, and as relevant now as it was then, "Profit" is a sheer masterpiece of film noir TV, and there has been nothing like it before or since. Buy it and watch it over and over - two words describe it better than any long review of it could: "Deliciously evil."

Alexander

(2004)

"Fortune favors the bold."

This is a prime example of bad filmmaking that needn't have been...Oliver Stone was way out of his element/genre directing this kind of film, and Colin Farrell was a poor choice for the lead; I like him well enough but he just couldn't carry this role, and with the blonde mullet he sports in it I just kept thinking, "Fabio! Fabio!"

A lot of great actors in the cast: Angelina Jolie, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Hopkins...all underused. Rosario Dawson is great too...and her performance was spicy! Jared Leto just wandered around with his big blue eyes, looking like a puppy, and Val Kilmer was, as usual, a complete ham. Jolie is in her element here as Alexander's vixen mother (yes, mother), playing with snakes, her black kohl-rimmed eyes brimming with mischief, although I must say that I found her use of a Russian accent a bit perplexing. Expanding Jolie's and Dawson's roles would have helped the film immensely; those two were the only really interesting characters.

Basically, this film suffers from (1) poor direction and (2) poor choice of leading man and (3) bad acting. That's a lot of major problems, isn't it? And if battle scenes are flat-out boring....! Good choice of narrator though - Anthony Hopkins has a great voice. And it's a good thing someone does narrate, because the film often needs explanation.

Watching this dud just made me want to re-watch really good epics such as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Gladiator", or "Ben-Hur".

Raising Arizona

(1987)

"A comedy beyond belief."

"Raising Arizona" is one of what I consider to be the five instantly classic films by the team of Ethan and Joel Coen, the others being "Blood Simple", "Fargo", "Oh Brother Where Are Thou", and "The Big Lebowski".

But "Raising Arizona" is my personal favorite, and one the most quotable films I have ever seen, with some of the best dialogue ever written for film.

I usually watch "Raising Arizona" at least once a year, and was just about in the mood to see it again when I happened to be waiting in a very slowly-moving line at my cell phone provider's store, and out of the blue, a man behind me asked me if I'd ever been to Green Bay. I replied "No, why?" He said I looked exactly like someone he knew there. I replied, "No, never been. But in the late 1980's a lot of people told me I looked like Holly Hunter in "Raising Arizona". (I am almost the same height, age, frame of build, somewhat similar facial features and general mannerisms, I also wore my hair like hers back then, and she's from Georgia and I'm from North Carolina, so we have similar accents.) His face lit up at the mention of the film, and he said to me:

"They've got a name for people like you. That name is 'Recidivism.'"

To which I immediately retorted: "That ain't me any more, no sir".
and the exchange went on...
"You're not just telling us what we want to hear?"
"No, sir, no way."
"Cause we just want to hear the truth."
"Well, then I guess I am telling you what you want to hear."
"Boy, didn't we just tell you not to do that?"
"Yes, sir."
"Okay, then."

We continued our "Raising Arizona" quotefest with each other, as I spouted out lines such as "Ah'm BARREN!!" (with the appropriate Holly Hunter facial expression) and "Yew go back in there and git me a youngun! They GOT more than they can handle!" While he came back with lines such as "Why are you lookin' for my son in the one place I know he ain't AT?!?"

...as the other people in line just looked at us as if we were crazy, except for one woman who daintily stepped forward and asked us "Uhm, I need to see a really funny movie. What's that one?"

In unison: "Raising Arizona!"

The story in brief: H.I. (Nicholas Cage) and "Ed" (Holly Hunter, in one of my favorite roles of hers) portray, respectively, an ex-con and a cop who meet when he keeps getting arrested for robbing convenience stores. They fall in love, get married, decide that "there is just too much love" between them, and they need a "critter to share it with". Upon finding that "Edwina's insides were a rocky place" where H.I.'s "seed could find no purchase", they try to adopt, but are turned down because of H.I.'s record. Then they read in the newspaper about local unpainted furniture storeowner Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), owner of "Unpainted Arizona", and his wife having quintuplets as a result of fertility pills, and who joke that "They got more than they can handle". The couple hatch a plan to take one of the babies and raise it as their own.

What results is an ongoing, fast-paced, hilarious set of misadventures, complicated by the appearance of a ruthless, heartless outlaw named Leonard Smalls (Randall "Tex" Cobb) Nathan Arizona hires to find the missing baby, and two felon friends from H.I.'s past (John Goodman and William Forsythe), who make a childbirth-like escape from prison. Sam McMurray (the smarmy dad in "Drop Dead Gorgeous") is H.I.'s....smarmy boss, Glen. Frances McDormand (real-life spouse of Joel Coen, and star of other Coen films such as "Blood Simple" and "Fargo") is his excitable wife Dot. M. Emmet Walsh ("Blood Simple") has a scenery-chewing cameo role as H.I.'s talkative co-worker.

When Ed finally opens up her 5'2" can of Southern-fried whup-ass, throwing her badge to the dirt, striding towards Leonard Smalls as she bellows with all her might, "Gimme back that baby, you warthog from HELL!!!" I always fling my arms up and shout "You go girl! Kick his ass!"

And the way Hunter cries is hilarious.

Holly Hunter was great in this role, as one would expect. She's a very talented actress, in both serious and comedic roles.

Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter made a great onscreen couple, Cage with his hair standing out in every direction, looking like a hapless, browbeaten puppy half of the time, and Hunter as his diminuitive firecracker of a wife who loves him and tries to keep him honest (oh yeah except for that little kidnapping excursion).

I could go on and on about this film but suffice to say that so far I haven't met anyone who didn't find "Raising Arizona" hilarious. And as any great Coen brothers film, it has a certain mythic quality that's hard to describe, but is present all of of the brothers' best efforts. When I was single, I often used Coen brothers films as a barometer of sorts for prospective boyfriends. For instance, I remember seeing "Fargo" on a first date, and when we came out of the theater, the guy (whose name I have since forgotten anyway) remarked "Huh, I didn't think much of that", while I was thinking how blown away I was by the film! I immediately thought to myself "So much for him! This relationship won't last long."

For more great Coen comedy, check out "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" (2000), which is loosely based on Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey". Another great Coen comedy is "The Big Lebowski" (1998), which also includes my favorite singer/songwriter Aimee Mann in a brief cameo, and boasts a cult following that has resulted in an annual "Lebowskifest" for fans of the film.

"Blood Simple" (1984) is probably my favorite film noir modern-day classic tale of lust and betrayal, and is my personal second-favorite Coen brothers film. "Fargo" (1996), which won the Screenwriting Oscar, and an Oscar for Frances McDormand, is another must-see Coen classic.

Psycho Beach Party

(2001)

"Party 'til you drop. Dead."

"Psycho Beach Party" is a parody of teen slasher horror films, taking place in the 1960's. It's a combination of beach movie, horror film, and camp. It's really not a very good movie for the general public, but as a cheesy camp flick it has its appeal, and it's worth at least a rent, at least for people who like this kind of John Waters-esque camp. My main complaint is that it seems to try a bit too hard. But it's a great movie if you're in a certain kind of relaxed mood. Anyway, we have a copy of it in our collection, and re-watched it yesterday.

Florence "Chicklet" Forrest (Lauren Ambrose, of "Six Feet Under") is the highlight of the whole movie, and makes the film worthwhile just on her merits alone. Her character has multiple personalites, the main two being the nice, peppy Florence, but the hilarious one is her alter-ego "Anne Bowen", a dominiatrix minx. Ambrose switches back and forth seamlessly and hilariously between these two personalities (and a minor third one).

The story: Florence and her best friend Berdine (Danni Wheeler) get involved in a series of murders after Florence starts hanging out with the all-male surfers' club, wanting to be part of the group. Captain Monica Stark (played by writer, actor and novelist Charles Busch, who for some reason saw fit to be cast in this female part - he is not really funny, and the character is treated as if she were really female, instead of a obvious man in drag) is the officer in charge of the case. Add to the mix a sequestered B-horror film actress, Bettina Barnes (Kimberley Davies), Florence's picture-perfect mother, Ruth (Beth Broderick), psychology major dropout Starcat (Nicholas Brendon, of the TV series "Buffy The Vampire Slayer"), the catty Marvel Ann (Amy Adams, of "Drop Dead Gorgeous"), Swedish exchange student, Lars (Matt Kessler), Kathleen Robertson as the bitchy, wheelchair-bound Rhonda, whom you really just want to literally push out of her chair, and the supposedly omnipotent Kanaka (Thomas Gibson), a great soundtrack, and you've got a completely silly, fun film for lovers of the cheesy camp genre.

The Avengers - The Emma Peel Megaset

1965-1967

(TV Series)

This is supposed to be just a movie review blog, but I can't resist adding this one TV show. I watched The Avengers when it was originally aired, but I hadn't seen any of the episodes since then until about a year ago, when I felt a sudden nostalgic yearning to own copies of the episodes that featured Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. I found out this set was available, and pulled out my charge card.

I didn't remember the show very well except for Emma Peel, having been a child when the episodes first aired. But I sure remembered Mrs. Peel - I wanted to grow up to be Emma Peel! She karate-chopped, sword-fought, out-smarted her foes, solved mysteries and crimes, wore great 60's clothes, had the perfect flip hairstyle, and saved her male partner John Steed from certain death as often as he saved her! All with a wry sense of humor, collected, the epitome of classy, and beautiful.

The episodes with Emma Peel comprised only a 2-year time frame of the series, but what a memorable time! The Megaset also includes galleries of rare, high-quality production stills from the archives of The Avengers. All the Avengers episodes ever made featuring Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel are in the set. I've been trying to watch them in sequence, but my husband prefers to pull out his personal favorites to watch, such as "The Queen of Sin", "The Winged Avenger", and "The Cybernauts".

Playful, stylish, classy, campy...and visually, these digitally remastered epsiodes are amazing. The black and white ones are very clear, and the color ones are extremely rich, lush in color. The beautiful and captivating theme music was some of the best of the times in TV shows. As for the scripts, as an adult, I can actually understand and appreciate the tongue-in-cheek humor inherent in the show! What a fun show. And with Patrick MacNee as the suave, jovial and warm John Steed, her partner in crime-solving, MacNee and Rigg - who had wonderful chemistry on-screen - made for some of the best years of "The Avengers."

Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?

(1962)

"Sister, sister, oh so fair, why is there blood all over your hair?"

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford portray sisters with a history of competitiveness with each other: Davis is Jane Hudson, or "Baby Jane" Hudson, as she was known when she was a child vaudeville star. Crawford is her sister Blanche, who became famous as an acclaimed actress while Jane's star went down. Jane, who was bratty and selfish as a child star, makes an even worse adult, much less a drunken, nasty, kabuki-makeup wearing, slovenly, crazy old woman.



Having suffered a mysterious car accident years before, Blanche's career as an actress was ended, and Jane takes care of her. Well, not really.



Blanche: (calmly) You wouldn't be able to do these awful things to me if I weren't still in this chair.
Jane: (screeching) But ya AAH, Blanche! Ya AAH in that chair!

A melodramatic combination of dark comedy, camp, and thriller, "Whatever Happened To baby Jane" is one of the all-time classics of camp horror.



The legendary hatred and competitiveness between the two stars is well-documented, and the film used it well, also rejuvenating the careers of both stars. Crawford insisted that a doll be used as a stand-in for the scene were Davis kicks her. Crawford's hatred of Davis was not lessened by Davis' nomination for Best Actress for her role (her 10th nomination). The image of the aged and horrific "Baby Jane" dressed in a childlike dress, performing "I've Written A Letter To Daddy" is probably one of the creepiest images in film. Footage from one of Davis' own early film flops is shown in a scene meant to illustrate how lousy an actress "Baby Jane" becomes as an adult.

Maidie Norman as maid/helper Elvira gives a great performance in a supporting role, and the classy Anna Lee (best known in later years as Lila Quartermaine on the TV soap "General Hospital"} portrays the sisters' gracious and inquisitive neightbor.

The film received five Academy Award nominations including Best Actress (Bette Davis), Best Supporting Actor (Victor Buono, in his screen debut), Best B/W Cinematography, and Best Sound, with one win for Best B/W Costume Design.

Giant

(1956)

"The legendary epic that's as big as Texas!"

The plot: Texas ranch owner Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson) travels to purchase a prize horse, but falls in love at first sight with the owner's pampered daughter Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor). He woos and wins her quickly, they marry, then travel back to his isolated ranch.



Leslie, after a rough start, proves herself quite the force of nature.



Ranch hand Jett Rink (James Dean) falls into unrequited love with Leslie -



Uttering, in the shot above, one of my favorite lines in the film, it goes something like, "Mrs. Benedict, you sure do look right good enough to eat, yeah, good enough to eat...." (voice trails off and he looks like he's going to lick his lips) - and then when he strikes it rich with oil, he takes his bitterness out in several ways.

With a stellar supporting cast including Mercedes McCambridge, Sal Mineo, Carroll Baker, and Dennis Hopper, "Giant" is the original miniseries before anyone knew what a miniseries even was...except this is of course a classic film of the big screen, not a TV movie.



Directed by George Stevens, the sprawling epic (201 minutes, but it goes fast, believe me) beautifully covers two generations of family and a variety of issues, including marriage, family, childraising, social snobbery and racism, the latter two being covered especially well. When in the mood for a well-paced, involved, alternately funny, sad, heartwarming, and emotionally fulfilling epic, "Giant" always fits the bill for me.

The Pride Of The Yankees

(1942)

"It's the Great American Story!"

First off, my favorite actor of all time is Gary Cooper. I love his acting, and the gawkiness he often used in his screen roles, in addition of course to the fact that I thought he was absolutely gorgeous in his prime. Cooper's appeal is only enhanced for me by the distance of his onscreen persona from his real-life one...he was quite the ladies' man in real life, not awkward with women as the characters he often portrayed onscreen, and his smoldering sexuality shows from his piercing blue eyes. His lively offscreen affairs with stars such as Clara Bow (who famously declared "He's hung like a horse and he can go all night!"), Lupe Velez aka "The Mexican Spitfire", and of course Patricia Neal, are the stuff of old Hollywood legend.

Kevin Costner and Ralph Fiennes in their primes had nothin' on Coop. He was the man. Cooper, who started off wanting to be an artist, fell into acting instead, first as a stunt man in westerns, but quickly getting leading roles. He continued to do most of his own riding and stunts even into his later years, carving himself quite a name as a star of westerns, including the western classic "High Noon" (1952), but my favorite films of his were films such as "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town" (1936), "Meet John Doe" (1941), "Ball Of Fire" (1941), "Sargeant York" (1941), and of course "The Pride Of The Yankees". My husband understands my adoration of Gary Cooper; and/but we had this brief discussion before we watched my recently purchased DVD of the film (I'd seen it before, but didn't own a copy of it):

Husband: "I don't mind watching it with you as long as you don't make those noises you always make when you watch a Gary Cooper movie."

Me: "What noises?"

Husband: "Those noises like the ones Homer Simpson makes when he looks at a stick of butter...'Mmmmmmmm'...."

Me: "What? I didn't know I did that. Okay, I won't make any weird noises while we watch it."

So I was quiet (except for of course choking up in tears when Cooper delivers Gehrig's legendary "Today, I consider myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth" farewell speech) -



- Gehrig's retirement speech helped immortalize him as a hero and an all-American role model.

"The Pride of the Yankees" is the blueprint for the sports biopic, and is generally considered to be the best movie about baseball ever made. Teresa Wright stars as his wife Eleanor. Wright, who just passed away this March, was an excellent actress, and a beautiful woman. The last film I saw her in was in a small part in "Somewhere In Time", and she had aged wonderfully. She and Cooper had great chemistry onscreen, holding her own ground as he towered over her petite 5'3" frame.



Walter Brennan, a frequent Cooper co-star and real-life friend, and Babe Ruth as himself (shown below with Cooper) are two other co-stars who contribute much to the film.



The film traces the rags-to-riches story of Gehrig, as his childhood dream comes true when he's signed to the New York Yankees, and his untimely retirement when he is stricken with the fatal, neurological disease ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) which was afterwards simply called "Lou Gehrig's Disease". Cooper, although a bit of an odd choice for the part (one reason being his height, he was about 6'4"), gives an endearing, heartfelt, dignified performance, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. Gehrig was left-handed, Cooper right-handed, which was further complicated by the fact that Cooper himself wasn't a capable baseball player. For the filming, his uniform had "New York" printed backwards on it, he ran to third base when he hit a ball, and then the print was reversed.

Nominated for 11 Academy Awards in all, and receiving 1 (for Film Editing), "The Pride Of The Yankees" still stands as a must-see film for baseball fans and fans of classic cinema alike.

Some Like It Hot

(1959)

"The movie too HOT for words!"

I recently picked up a special edition DVD of the classic "Some Like It Hot", and upon arriving home with it, tossed out my old battered fullscreen VHS version. I watched this film again last night, with the added bonus of seeing it for the first time in widescreen, and was immediately struck once again by how perfect a movie it is.

You've got a Billy Wilder film with female impersonators played by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe with a screen name that reeks of porn and/or strippers - "Sugar Cane". What more could you ask for? This wondrous mix combined to make one of the greatest comedies in the history of film.

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon portray down-and-out musicians who accidently witness a mob massacre and immediately flee from the mob, as George Raft's character says, "I don't like no loose ends." In desperation, they disguise themselves as women -



- Curtis as "Josephine", and Lemmon as "Daphne", in order to join an all-girl band and leave town.

Once "Sugar Cane" (Monroe) sashays past the pair on the way to the train they're about to board, all bets are off. Staring after her as she walks away, Lemmon, as "Daphne" exclaims, "Would you look at that...that's just like jello on springs!"

I'll omit the rest of the plot summary. What I will remark on is how really filthy this movie is for its time. And very gay! The innuendos and double-entendres are priceless. Jack Lemmon, who had one of the most expressive faces in film, gives an amazing performance. Tony Curtis looks scarily convincing as a woman (Lemmon just looks really ugly), and Marilyn Monroe is hypnotically beautiful and funny at the same time.

Marilyn Monroe - a woman whom the camera truly loved. Pregnant during the making of the film, she looks just slightly more voluptuous than usual for the time - in fact gorgeous - and in closeups, ethereal, vulnerable, and breathtaking in a way that almost brings tears to the eyes.



Joe E. Brown gives a hilarious performance as "Daphne's" suitor -



- and Tony Curtis gets to give his (passable, but still very funny) Cary Grant impression. Side note: There has been the legendary rumor for years that Curtis said that "Kissing Marilyn Monroe was like kissing Hitler" because of problems on the set with her erratic behavior. In recent years Curtis has claimed that he never made that statement. Whatever the truth, the pair do exhibit really wonderful chemistry in their love scene together, and the skin-colored/sequined dress Marilyn Monroe wears for that sequence is absolutely perfect. Here she is shown in between takes in it; she couldn't sit down well in it, so a special board/rest was set up for her:



This is a film that still stands the test of time; a true ten-star classic.

Jaws

(1975)
(30th Anniversary Special Edition DVD)

"You'll never go in the water again!"

This is the movie that really reminds me of high school; it came out the summer before I started my senior year, the summer I turned 18.

"Jaws" was the "Psycho" of my generation. I don't apply this term to "Halloween", another equally scary film of the '70's involving pointy things that can kill you, because "Jaws" and "Psycho" have too very important elements in common with each other, and "Halloween" somehow seems to fall into a different horror genre.

Both "Psycho" and "Jaws" are about ordinary people doing something ordinary and enjoyable, two activities one would normally never find dangerous: showering, and splashing about in the shallows of the ocean.

I don't remember, but I can't imagine that this movie made people very happy whose livelihood depended on beach tourism, as it was released in the early summer.

Seeing "Psycho" made many people afraid to take showers (including actress Janet Leigh, who starred in it and claimed she never took another shower afterwards), and "Jaws" made many people afraid to swim in the ocean. It scared the hell out of us teenagers and made for endless pranks at the beach that summer (hey, I was 17 when it came out in the theater, what can I say)? Two of my friends would take turns pretending to be an approaching shark in the water, using his hand as a fin, while humming the classic "Jaws" soundtrack, or pretending to be the first victim in the film (minus the screaming, which upset the lifeguards), thrashing and flailing about in the waves as if being attacked and dragged underwater.

"Jaws" was also Steven Spielberg's first (and I think best) blockbuster. It could only help boost the careers of the 3 lead male actors in the film: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss (this was the role that made Dreyfuss a star). It spawned one of the most classic and oft-quoted lines in film history: "You're gonna need a bigger boat." It was also technically a very innovative film, with a mechanical shark that by all accounts was a great deal of trouble.

I hadn't seen this film in several years, having seen it umpteen times when it first came out, and several times on VHS, as I owned an old VHS copy of it. But I recently got the 30th Anniversary Edition, and saw it again last night, in the dark, in widescreen, through the stereo (gone is the full-screen only old tape).

Suffice to say that when the head pops out of the boat...I still jump just as much as I did the first time I saw it in the theater.

The ultimate, and best, of the "Scary Summer Movie" genre.

This "Special Edition 30th Anniversary Edition" (widescreen, of course) of the film includes some great special features such as deleted scenes and outtakes, a never-before-available interview with Spielberg, archives, and a two-hour documentary of the making of the film. The deleted scenes and outtakes are a riot; I can certainly see why the shot of Robert Shaw's clog-sheathed foot stepping out of a big black car with the words "QUINT" in white and a white outline drawing of a shark on its door were cut! Shaft! We never knew ya!

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

(2005)

My husband and I just got back from seeing "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", which opened in theaters today. Normally I don't review current-run films, much less on the day they premiere, but I had planned beforehand to review this one. I knew I was going to enjoy it. Aside from and in spite of all the media speculation about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, I had a feeling it was going to be a fun film. I like Angelina Jolie and I especially like to watch her in action roles (yes I love and own the two Tomb Raider films). Seeing her run around with a big gun, kicking butt, is FUN. She's as great in this kind of role as Diana Rigg was as TV's Emma Peel! A perfect fit. And Brad Pitt is an underrated actor, he is really very good, and he is funny in this movie! He has great comedic timing.

The plot is simple. Two professional assassins find out that they've been hired to kill the other. The plot is only barely complicated by the facts that (1) they are married to each other, and (2) they did not know until this point of the story the other's true occupation.

The "eye candy" factor is high: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, often scantily dressed, heavily breathing lines such as "Who's your Daddy now?"

It's also an action-packed movie, with good dialogue, great chemistry between Pitt and Jolie, and plenty of (not too bloody) violence. It's much more tongue-in-cheek than the trailers indicate. And Pitt and Jolie get some great one-liners.

All in all, a highly entertaining "popcorn" movie; great summer flick. As we walked to the car I said "It's sort of a mix of 'True Lies', 'Tomb Raider', 'The Avengers' (the old TV show, not that lousy movie), with a pinch of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' thrown in. I really enjoyed it."

And look for a "Fight Club" reference, in the form of a t-shirt.

Office Space

(1999)

"Could you do that? That'd be greaaaaaaat."

Always on my list of "films to take along on the yearly beach trip in case it rains". Anyone who's ever had to work in an office environment (I have, many times) will find something to love, as will anyone who's ever waitressed in a restaurant such as "T.G.I. Friday's" (ditto), that makes the employees wear idiotic uniforms involving wearing decorations such as buttons (called "flair" in this film).

Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butthead, and he also has a cameo as the annoying supervisor at the restaurant) hits every right note in the film that really displayed Gary Cole's ("Fatal Vision") comedic ability, and proved Jennifer Aniston, as Joanna, Peter's love interest, to be capable of much more than just being a TV "Friend". Her performance in "Office Space" resulted in her getting another ground-breaking part for her, in "The Good Girl". Ron Livingston (Peter Gibbons) is dead-on as the deadpanned, put-upon office worker who finally breaks free. Diedrich Bader (of The Drew Carey Show) in a small but notable part as Peter's construction-worker friend and neighbor is wonderfully funny, and almost unrecognizable under the long hair and drawl. Stephen Root ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?") is the Swingline-stapler loving underfoot underdog.

All the smaller parts are fleshed out well and are hilarious in their own right, and each aspect of the film, while exaggerating the possible goings-on in the office world, exposes the inherent idiocies. This is one of those films that has spun out classic quotable lines from the first day it premiered.

Did you get the memo?

Somewhere In Time

(1980)

"Is it you?"

The ultimate modern-day four-hankie chick-flick, "Somewhere In Time", starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, and Teresa Wright (in a bit part) is an unabashedly sentimental, romantic, beautiful film that never fails to bring me to tears.

Reeve portrays Richard Collier, a young Chicago playwright, who, on the opening night of his first play, is approached by an elderly woman who pleads with him to "Come back to me" as she presses an antique watch into his hands. Intrigued, he starts to do some research and discovers that the woman was, in her youth, a beautiful and popular stage actress named Elise McKenna. He travels to a resort where she had performed, and becomes obsessed with a photographic portrait he sees on display there. (Next comes the really fantasy part) He decides he has to learn how he can travel back in time so that he may meet her, and by self-hypnosis, combined with other methods/props, they meet and fall in love. But trouble rears its ugly head in the form of Elise's overbearing and overprotective manager (Plummer).

Christopher Reeve is at his handsome prime here, and his performance is wonderfully Gary Cooperish-tall-awkward-naive-in love. Jane Seymour is at her most patrician, slyly feline best (her other best performance, IMO, has been in the TV remake of "East of Eden", which is actually a very fine film in its own right). Their performances, along with Christopher Plummer's, the beautiful soundtrack by John Barry, which is almost better than the film itself, and the costumes combine to make a great tearjerker along the lines of the old classics.

Official website: http://www.somewhereintime.tv/

To Die For

(1995)

"All she wanted was a little attention..."

If you would like to see a truly great and lesser-known performance by Nicole Kidman, check out "To Die For". Directed by Gus Van Sant, screenplay by Buck Henry from the book by Joyce Maynard (both Henry and Maynard have bit parts in the film), "To Die For" is a wicked little gem of a film.

Kidman won the Golden Globe award for Best Actress for her performance, and frankly I thought she should have gotten the Academy Award (unless I remember incorrectly, I don't think she was even nominated for an Academy Award for it). But she is absolutely brilliant in it: chilling, funny, scary, sexy, and horrifically evil.

Kidman portrays Suzanne Stone-Maretto: a devious, calculating, self-centered woman who manipulates Larry Maretto (a very sympathetic performance by Matt Dillon) into marrying her, quickly tires of him when he tries to stand in her way of her greatest ambition in life, which is to be the next Diane Sawyer, and soon convinces her teenage lover to kill him for her. Sound familiar? "To Die For" was loosely based on the real-life story of Pamela Smart, who seduced her 15-year old lover into murdering her husband.

Joaquin Phoenix is Jimmy Emmett, the hapless student who becomes Suzanne's lover; Lydia Mertz is Alison Follard, a young girl who idolizes her; and Casey Affleck is Russel Hines, another student who gets caught up in the scheme. Illeana Douglas is great as Larry's acidic, loving sister Janice, who also gets one of the best lines in the film, and at the very beginning, no less; and Dan Hedaya is Larry's father, Joe Maretto. Dan Hedaya is a master of the "Believe me, you don't want to see me mad" performance, with obvious menace just under a calm surface. The casting is great, and the performances are all right on target.

Look for uncredited cameos by George Segal as a conference speaker, and David Cronenberg as...you'll just have to see it.

Fahrenheit 451

(1966)

"What if you had no right to read?"

"Fahrenheit 451" is a strange, quirky, flawed film - but one I've always loved. No director could or would have interpreted the classic Bradbury novel in the same bizarre, fascinating manner as Francois Truffaut. It's a book, and a film, about freedom, choices, individuality, and intellectual repression in a future where books are forbidden; where Firemen are men who start fires...fires in which they burn books.

It was also the first color film directed by Truffaut. Although he by all accounts was not happy about making a color film and found it a bit unsettling, color is used to great effect here; sparingly, except for the extreme shade of red that is seen throughout.

"Fahrenheit 451" is supposed to be the temperature at which book paper catches fire, as the protagonist Guy Montag (Oskar Werner) explains in a scene at the beginning. Guy is a Fireman who seems happy enough with his life until he is approached by a young woman named Clarisse (Julie Christie) on his way home from work one day. She starts up a conversation with him, and the two become friendly. She bewilders him but challenges him to think and feel....and read. And when he arrives home we see his wife (also played by Julie Christie, with long hair), sedated and watching the wallscreen (TV of sorts)...we see what his life is really like, although he had told Clarisse he was "happy"...he is not.

As his friendship with Clarisse grows, he starts to secretly take home, hoard, and read some of the books he finds in the course of his daily work, and as he reads, he becomes obsessed with the books. They become his mistress, and are what finally make him feel affection and warmth. And when he starts to feel and care, so do we.

The two single best scenes are a passionate one involving an old woman who refuses to leave her books, her "children" as she calls them; and the wonderful ending of the film. The countless, painful closeups of books as they are being burned are beautifully done, and difficult to watch.

The gossip and trivia surrounding the making of the film are almost more interesting than the film itself. For instance, Truffaut and Werner had previously made the classic "Jules and Jim" together, and had been friends. However, after the huge success of "Jules and Jim", Werner had by all accounts become a bit...difficult. For example: when Werner and Christie met for the first time in real life, instead of Werner saying something like "I'm so looking forward to our working together", he immediately launched into a lecture to Christie about how he thought she should play her part. By the end of the film Truffaut and Werner detested each other (Christie was said to be a wonderful actress to work with). He used Werner as little as possible as filming progressed and their antagonism towards each other grew. For a scene in which the audience sees what is supposed to be Montag's hand pulling a tarp over himself, Truffaut purposely found the crew member with the worst nicotine-stained fingers to stand-in Werner's hands. He was forced to use a body double in several scenes, as Werner was extremely uncomfortable around fire, which made filming more difficult than expected. Werner famously got a major haircut right before the final scenes were shot, to try to disturb the film's continuity.

Truffaut was a well-known disciple of Alfred Hitchcock's films, so when Hitchcock fired his long-time music collaborator Bernard Herrmann, during the filming of "Torn Curtain", Truffaut was thrilled to acquire his talents for his own film. The score for "F451" is beautiful, and the film would not be nearly as effective without it.

Writer/producer/director Frank Darabont ("The Green Mile", "The Shawshank Redemption", to name my favorites of his) is working on a new film of "Fahrenheit 451" this year. He says it won't be a remake of the original film. I love the 1966 version, but I have to admit that I will be very interested to see how Darabont will interpret this Bradbury classic.

The Haunting (1999 remake)

(1999 remake)

Here's a sample "this took me 5 minutes to write" review, although that's more than this movie deserves anyway.

A lousy remake of a great movie from an even greater novel by Shirley Jackson (the novel was titled "The Haunting of Hill House").

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and not even bad in a funny way, so it wouldn't even qualify as "camp" entertainment. Despite a cast including Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Lili Taylor, the overdone special-effects alone crush this film under their weight. Do yourself a favor, go rent or buy the 1963 original starring Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. THAT film is one of my very favorite ghost movies of all time, is in my personal DVD collection, and a movie I would highly recommend to anyone who loves ghost/horror, especially the older films where subtlety, a great soundtrack, and the viewer's own imagination and fears are employed to great effect.

The Philadelphia Story

(1940)

"You're slipping, Red. I used to be afraid of that look -
the withering glance of the goddess."

Since Katharine Hepburn is my favorite actress, it's about time I paid homage to one of her films.

The movie begins with one of the most classic scenes in film history. The audience does not know who the characters are in the first scene, and no dialogue is used. We see Cary Grant angrily slam the front door of a mansion and stalk towards a car parked out front. A moment later, Katharine Hepburn, dressed in a nightgown, follows him out, carrying a bag of golf clubs. After removing one club, she contemptuously throws the bag filled with the rest at him, haughtily breaks the one club over her knee, throws the halves at him, and stomps back towards the open doorway. Grant follows her, taps her on the shoulder...and when she wheels around, he pulls his fist back as if to punch her, but instead mashes her face in the palm of his hand, shoving her backward through the open doorway, where we next see her rubbing her neck as she sits up. The scene ends.

Cut to "Two Years Later" as the title informs the audience; the day before Philadelphian blue-blood Tracy Lord's (Katharine Hepburn) second wedding. The audience also realize that the mashee in the opening scene and the masher were formally husband and wife: Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) and C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant). Soon Dexter has makes a surprise visit to the Lord household on the eve of the wedding. Tracy is about to marry George Kittredge (John Howard), her stuffy and rather chauvinistic well-to-do fiance. What Tracy doesn't know at first is that Dexter, perhaps seeking revenge on Tracy, has arranged for Mike Connor (James Stewart), a writer for a tabloid-like magazine named "Spy", and Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey), a "Spy" photographer, to do a story on the wedding under the guise of being friends of a friend of the family. Once Tracy is informed by Dexter that she must either allow the story to be written or her father's ongoing illicit affair with a dancer will be the big story instead she consents, but Connor and Imbrie do not know that she knows who their real identities and purpose...and she plots to "really give them something to write about...we'll set them on their ears!"

The first scene where Tracy meets Mike Connor and Liz Imbrie, and practically interviews them sets the tone for the rest of the film.

To reveal more of the story would spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the film. But in the next twenty-four hours Tracy and the others find their lives turned upside-down in an alternately hilarious and touching series of events.

Katharine Hepburn made the extremely wise move on the advise of Howard Hughes, whom she was dating at the time, of buying the film rights to Philip Barry's play - she had been a hit onstage in the role, which was written for her. Recently having been labeled "box-office poison", even being offered a role in a film tentatively entitled "Mother Carey's Chickens", it was the only way to guarantee her the role in any filming of the play. She had spent a year on Broadway in the film version, and interrupted the tour of the play to film it for MGM. For the film, she had wanted Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy for the roles of Haven and Connor. She got Grant and Stewart - hardly shabby! And better choices anyway, IMHO. Donald Ogdent Stewart took over for the screenplay adaptation, as Barry had apparently requested too much money. The dialogue is some of the best of any film of its time, and Hepburn, at her most radiant, is beautifully costumed by designer Adrian. She is at times "lit from within", as Stewart's character Mike tells her, and at other times "made of bronze" (as her father, played by John Halliday) asserts. Dinah, Tracy's young sister, is portrayed to hilarious effect by child actress Virginia Weidler, who makes her appearance to the reporter duo in ballet toe shoes, spewing French and finishing her introduction to them by manically playing and singing a lusty dance-hall song on the piano. Pinch-prone Uncle Willie (Roland Young) adds great spice and fun with his smaller part.

Side note: In the scene where Mike arrives drunk at Dexter's house late one evening, Stewart purposely hiccups to try to crack Grant's straight-faced resolve - and it works.

"The Philadelphia Story" won six Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Stewart), Best Actress (Hepburn), Best Supporting Actress (Hussey), Best Screenplay (Donald Ogden Stewart), and Best Director (George Cukor). James Stewart and Donald Ogden Stewart won their nominations (Stewart's sole Oscar win), and although Katharine Hepburn did not win for this role (she lost to Ginger Rogers for her performance in "Kitty Foyle"), she received the New York Film Critics' Award. The film revived her professional reputation, was a huge success, is of course considered to be one of the all-time classics of romantic comedy, and my personal favorite of Hepburn's films of this genre.

A Boy And His Dog

(1975)

"A rather kinky tale of survival."

"A Boy And His Dog" is definately a cult classic, but defies being more neatly categorized beyond that genre. It's been labeled alternately and collectively as being "misogynistic", "the greatest Science Fiction movie ever made", "black comedy", and as a "cross between George Orwell and Mel Brooks" (the last description is my personal favorite), to list a few. Although it is true that the film is rather misogynistic, I don't find this a fault; the film is supposed to be portraying a terrible, possible future reality. And it may not be nice, folks.

"A Boy And His Dog" was directed by L.Q. Jones, a character bit actor favored by Sam Peckinpah for his westerns, and is based on the novella of the same name by Sci-Fi legend Harlan Ellison (who by all accounts loved the film version).

It takes place in the year 2024, after WWIV has ravaged the earth's civilization, rendering it into a post-apocalyptic desert where humans have become complete scavengers. A very young, relatively unknown Don Johnson (way before his days in TV's "Miami Vice") stars as Vic, a young "solo" as the loners are called, trying to stay alive in this post-atomic desert of a world. Veteran actor Jason Robards appears in a small part as a favor to Jones. Vic's companion, friend, and mentor is a sheepdog named Blood. The dog, named Tiger in real life, was a very popular animal actor of the times in addition to being an extremely well-trained and appealing performer, and also was the family dog on the TV show "The Brady Bunch."

Vic and Blood share a special bond, and the two communicate telepathically.

Don't laugh at that last remark; it's done very well in the film.

An element that could have ruined the film if not done carefully is, however, handled perfectly. Although it was suggested that animation be used to make it appear as if the dog's mouth is moving, thankfully none was used, and Tiger's masterful performance, combined with his scruffy, gravelly, world-weary, old-west voice, provided by Tim McIntire, makes for some of the best acting in the film, and also some of the best lines. Blood literally sniffs out women for Vic to have sex with, helps Vic be on the lookout for other packs of scavengers trying to kill him and each other in the ongoing fight over food and women, and Vic does the shooting and the foraging for food. In addition the two are best friends, with Blood being the most intelligent by far. It seems that in the future, people have become the real animals.

The elements of caustically dark humor and dry dialogue (the dog gets the best lines) helps carry the film. And while this is in no way "the best Science Fiction movie ever made", in my opinion, it's certainly a great one, along with others of its time such as "Soylent Green". There are practically no special effects; the scenery and sets are cheap and minimalist, letting the characters and script tell the story, for the most part. This isn't an overly-laden with special effects film like many of the ones made these days.

In case this whole scenario seems reminiscent of another, more famous film, "Mad Max", that may be because "A Boy And His Dog" inspired "Mad Max"; however I find this film to be superior.  And the ending is...well you will just have to see it.